Flower girl Norah

Once again Norah cracks me up with the things she does and why she dose them. I just knew that she wanted to be walked down from the top step by her escort. She did not disappoint. After all it is just not the same to be walked down the isle from the bottom step.

Norah gets a birth certificate.

We won a top blog cochlear Implant award

LicensedPracticeNurse.com

Thank you to whoever recommended us for this.

Zoo Trip

After going to the Nature Center we all went to the zoo. By the look of that line to get in we were not the only people happy to see a sunny day.

He is LOVIN' the sun too.

I don't know wether to think this is cute or sad. He looked kind of sad to me, dragging his blankets across the ground all depressed like.

The gorilla would stand in the corner by the observation glass and wait quietly till he was ready then he would run by the window and smack at whoevers face was closest. All in good fun but I'm sure if he could have gotten out someone would have gotten the beat down for disturbing his privacy. Probably the kid that kept taunting him. I was on this side of the glass and wanted to smack him.

Norah's favorite animal in the whole world. Well, that and penguins.

Two of Norah's favorite animals.

The first time we brought Norah to the bird enclosure she was beside herself and would not get down and could not get out of there fast enough. This time it took me and Boo both to keep her corraled.

New penguin exhibit was not open yet so Norah had to settle for a picture of her as a penguin.

Anyone seen Dr. Blowhole? (10 points if you know who that is).

No.....I do not think we will be coming back again. We were not impressed. Yes, we go about once a year but it always leaves us kind of sad. There have been improvements made to the habitats but there is still much lacking. This time there were also other concerns: over flowing bathrooms, no water fountains that worked, areas roped off that made the children's area look like a crime scene. Even the vending machines to get a drink at were turned off and almost all of the concession stands closed. It seems as though the city of Little Rock would rather spend it's money on making more golf courses and updating it's sports facilities than put some time and money into the zoo. This also goes for our libraries but that's another post all together. This has seemed to be the case for a while. Our zoo here even lost it's accreditation for a time. Makes me want to hide under my blanket in shame.......kind of like the orangutan.

Nature Center

Glen, Norah, Bebe (baby doll), and Boo

Norah showing off the sign for deer.

There was an entire display of artwork at the nature center. All of it was beautiful, this one particularly caught my eye because of the strong orange/brown colors on the front duck. Gorgeous!

This poor guy looks like he has had a ROUGH night!

These huge ugly turtles actually live in the waters around here! Glen used to catch them every once in a while when he would go catfishing. They would go after his bait. Needless to say he would just cut his line because you do not want to go into this things mouth after a hook. You would loose a finger, possibly an entire hand. They are MEAN too and they hiss!

Nasty! I really do not like snakes.

Who is that handsome young man?

Beaver! Hahahahahah! (Sorry, my sense of humor is the same as a 13 year old boy).

The nature center is free, my favorite word. Well ok, not "free" because I did pay for it with my taxes I guess but they did a good job on it so it was well worth it.

Great Wall, Rockets, Cheese, and Belly Buttons.

Glen found this "Great Wall of China" cardboard coloring contraption on sale at Hobby Lobby (craft store). It took both of us to put the thing together. Norah thought it was neat though and had her Princess and the Frog doll playing on it for a few days.

We recently got a decent snow storm. Norah was not real big on snow last year but this year she actually went outside for a little while and even rode around on a sled for about 20 minutes, then she was done and ready to go back inside.

Notice the hands on the hips posture. Notice the disapproving look on her face. Hahahaha! Glen had no idea what he was in for. To funny! This is her new stance and facial expression. She uses it often and she IS NOT joking.

It has been quite cold here lately so we have been having to find things to do inside. See above about how Norah is not real big on cold weather. We made a rocket from one of her many craft books and then tied up fishing line from the top of the front door to the table leg in the kitchen. The rocket is attached to the fishing line by pipe cleaners. Norah tied an extra long piece of fishing line to the bottom of the rocket so that she could pull it all the way back up to the top part of the string on the front door. When she would let go of her end of the string the rocket would zoom back down the line to the kitchen. She played with that for a while and then went and got a whole lot of ribbon out of the craft bin and began tying it everywhere. It made it almost impossible to get through the living room BUT entertained her for almost 4 hours so it was well worth it. We just went throught the next morning and cut it all down.

Yet another thing to do inside on a cold day. We tried or hand at making cheese. Glen and I saw a little blurb in the How To section of the Google home page and thought hmmmm I wonder if it will work. It was really easy, didn't take long, and Norah even liked the cheese. I think we will most likely do it again and maybe even try and expand on the types of cheese. I tried making orange marmalade too but it tastes really bad. I will have to try it again sometime with a different receipe

We were going to suspend the dish towel from the hanger over night to let the remainder of the whey drip out but we are very impatient around here so I just squeezed it out.

Cheese burgers for lunch! Yum!

Norah's outfit for Tuesday. I hope she never loses her quirky fashion sense.

On a side note: I realize that if you come in to the hospital with an emergency you might be dirty from working or whatever. Totally expected and acceptable. No problem I will wash you down before surgery without a word. However, for the love of pete people wash out your belly button once in a while. I can not tell you the number of times I have had to dig out with tweezers something that looks like a small, stinky mouse out of someones belly button. Your bathing anyway right? (Hopefully) Just stick your finger in there and twirl it around. Who knows you might like it. Just saying. This ends my public service announcement for today. (Disclaimer: Obviously I am not talking about anyone in particular. It is just an overall observation.) Cut your toenails too!

January 15

Happy Birthday Dr. King!

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is to great a burden to bear."

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

2010 - Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

Lori's year (2010)....illustrated with the help of Norah and Ariel.

My year started out like this. (See above picture.) Then during the last half of the year went from that to what can only be best described by Ariel's perdicament in the bottom picture. There were bright spots here and there yet on the whole 2010 was a big sack load of to much stress, zero alone time, many many trips to way to many medical establishments, minimal sleep and even less .....ummmm...... adult alone time (see post about how Norah doesn't ever sleep or like it when Glen hugs me). We are sooooo ready for 2011.

No mermaids were harmed during the making of this post. At least she didn't say she was being harmed. (insert evil laugh here)

Here's to an easy, less stressed new year with much more sleep and lovins' for Mama and Daddy.